Geolocating Russian Anti-Ship Missiles in Occupied Crimea

On 27 November 2018, Russian state media outlets published three clips of GRAU 3K60 “Bal” launchers, each carrying eight X-35 anti-ship missiles, and a Monolit-B radar system moving in convoy down a foggy rural road, allegedly on the road from Sevastopol to Kerch.

The rest of the footage takes place along a single stretch of road beginning at a cut in the hillside …

The signage has changed since 2010 but the curb, wall, and hillside match. 33.654451 44.606703

The truck unfortunately obscures the end of the wall, but the signage matches. 35.032128 45.009658

… and ending along a curve lined with black-and-white guardrails, red curve chevrons on the left and a striped curb and a merge sign on the right.

33.654451 44.606703

The footage in all three videos was shot in two takes traveling northbound (perhaps even toward Kerch!) on Highway P27 outside Sevastopol. Twitter user Samir @obretix was the first to find the mural at the end of the northernmost segment (after I had driven that same stretch of road three times without noticing it), which led me to the stretch of road in the southernmost segment.

RT’s clip has spliced footage from the northern segment into the middle of continuous footage filmed on the southern segment. There is no indication why the broadcasters chose to do this: if they thought it was going to obscure the location, they will find that they were overconfident.